My Immortal Love
by Animagious-White-Tiger
Summary: Snape's true love is stolen. Will he ever get her back? Or will she remain in the hands of the evil ones forever?
1. Prologue

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything Harry Potter, but I do own the main love interest in this story.**

It's been seven years, seven long years, since that damned Golden Trio first arrived here at Hogwarts to begin their school careers, which should have ended years ago. Seven years that the war against the Dark Lord has come to the grounds of Hogwarts in one way or another, seven years since Lucius Malfoy first suspected me of being a traitor to our master, but has had no real evidence and therefore said nothing, and seven years since that bastard of a man took the one truly good thing in my life and killed her.

Aurora MacNamare was the kindest, most beautiful, and most powerful witch I had ever met. She had long, light brown hair with just a hint of blonde in a few of the strands, beautiful emerald green eyes, and a small, petite figure that stood at about 5' 3". And this is the truly best thing about her, she was no ordinary, run of the mill pureblood witch, she was a kind-hearted, gentle-souled, Pure Light Entity, with more power in her left pinkie than most purebloods had in their entire body, including me.

I never knew her when she was growing up. She had grown up in America and attended Muggle schools until she graduated high school, learning about her powers from her parents, who were also Pure Light Entities, at night before she went to bed. After she graduated high school, she had received a letter from Dumbledore requesting that she meet with him at Hogwarts for more extensive training in her abilities and one day a possible job at Hogwarts. Naturally, she moved to her parents' native country, England, and persued a life of leaning and training.

I only met her because the Dark Lord had sent me back for a mission. She came during my summer vacation for her meeting with Albus, and when my master heard that a Pure Light Entity had come to Hogwarts to further her training, he wanted her either converted or killed. I was the one given the mission, since I was the only Death Eater who could get in and out of Hogwarts without detection or a lot of questions.

The moment I got to Hogwarts, I headed up to Albus' office to inform him of the situation, but as I got there, there she was talking to the Headmaster and being accepted as a student in the advanced classes for the next year. However, I didn't know it was her, at first, the Dark Lord didn't know what she looked like, only that she was powerful and he needed her on his side of the was or on no one's side at all.

As I entered, giving her a scowl of a lifetime, she was leaving the room. I don't know why I scowled, I guess I did it out of habit, knowing that she would end up in one of my classes, I couldn't have her thinking that I simply smiled at everyone.

Once she was gone and I was sure that there was no one within earshot, I told Albus about everything. I told him how the Dark Lord had sensed a Pure Light Entity coming to Hogwarts and how I was to either convert this being to his side of the war, or at least to his Dark Arts, or I was to kill her to keep her from joining him on the good side.

Albus explained that the young woman who had just left the room had been the Pure Light Entity that I had been sent to kill or convert and that he had a plan to keep her on his side and alive.

Dumbledore had been working on a particular charm that would permanently hide her and her magical abilities from anyone who might be looking for her. The only problem was, that if she should go missing, no one would be able to find her unless they did it the Muggle was, by "bumping" into her. All the while, she would be here, at Hogwarts disguised as a student learning how to control her powers better and how to advance her abilities. All I would have to do was report her as dead to the Dark Lord saying that she was unconvertible.

After about a month, I reported her as dead to the Dark Lord and gave him the whole story of how I had tried to lure her to the Dark Arts and tried to presued her to join our side of the war, but she wouldn't have it. So one night, while she was asleep, Albus and myself were actually placing the charm on her, I snuck into her room and killed her. Needless to say, the Dark Lord wasn't all that happy about it. I spent three weeks recovering in the Hospital Wing after a multitude of Crucio curses were placed upon me for "actually killing" such a powerful being.

After that, I spent my time unconsciously wooing the young girl. She had a real head for potions, as well as anything else she was taught, but she always seemed to try to take extra potions classes.

When the school year started, she spent her days in the infirmary helping out Madam Pomfrey and her evenings were spent in one of the classrooms, getting a private lesson in one field or another. But when it came to my night, we would skip the lessons. It wasn't that I didn't have more to teach her, it was that we could always think of better ways to spend the evenings, rather than hunched over a cauldron.

We would sometimes go to Hogsmeade and walk around town, or we would walk around the grounds and just talk about any and everything. That was how I had known so much about her past. And if we didn't go for a walk, we would spend time in the dungeons in eachother's company and have our own kind of fun.

She was the first girl I had ever grown attached to, the only girl I had ever allowed myself to love. I had told her all about myself and my past, including my darker days and how I had become a Death Eater and then how I had become a spy for the good side. She never once cringed or tried to find a to get away from me, which had only made me love her more.

We had been together for four years and she was finally finished with her training. We were both so happy and I had secret plans to propose to her on our anniversary, but I made the mistake of refusing to carry out some orders that Lucius had for me. After that, Lucius never did trust me again and got it into his head tat I was a traitor, which I had been for years now, but he had no solid proof.

So on the day of mine and Aurora's four year anniversary, Lucius kidnapped her and told me that he had killed her as an example of what he would do to me if he ever found out that I was actually betraying our master. The next day, the Golden Trio came to Hogwarts to begin their school careers, and I began even more secretly fight against the Dark Lord so Lucius didn't suspect anything else of me and neither did Voldemort.


	2. Busted

**A/N: This does change POV from the last chapter, but it won't change back. At least not without a warning before the chapter. Enjoy.**

_I am in a beautifully decorated dungeon room inside a monumentous castle. The deep cherry mahogany wood of the furniture, give the room a manor type of feel. All of chairs and couches within this living area are big, fluffy, and are covered in a deep emerald fabric. The fireplace is roaring with a large red and gold blaze, as I stand in the middle of the room on a fluffy green and silver-flecked rug, one of many throughout the room. The fireplace is cased by emerald pillars with silver snakes encircling them, and the heads of the two snakes join in the middle of the mantle and droop down so that the base of their heads are touching._

_I walk through a door next to the full wall bookcase. Most are old tombs on potion making, but there are some on other subjects such as, transfiguration, defensive spells against dark and general magic, and there were a few general to light spell books in there as well. Through the door is a most gorgeous bedroom, which doubles as a washroom._

_One half of the room has black and emerald marbled tile covering the floor, while the other half emerald carpeting. On the half with the tiling, there is a shower, built for two, a double sink with a mirror spanning the length, and in the center of that floor, there is a monumetous bathtub. But it doesn't look like a bathtub, it looks like a miniature swimming pool, with an enchanted waterfall over it. And on the other half of the room, there is a four-poster bed that takes up nearly the entire space with an armoire to the right of the bed and a dresser with vanity to the left._

_As I stand in awe of this magnificent room, I can feel a slight chill. I look down at my clothes and see that I am wearing only a black, with green flecks and silver lining, silk nighty. My first reaction is to run to the bed and cover up, but then I remember, it's a special night, and I'm waiting for him to show up so I can surprise him for our anniversary, so I remain standing in the gorgeous bedroom, waiting for his return._

_About a minute later, I hear a loud crash from the door being swung open at full force and hitting the wall behind it. I figure that he is just mad a t me for not meeting him for dinner like I had promised, but the surprise in here should more than make up for it. I can hear him stomping to the bedroom door, and I begin to feel a little anxious. I turn to face the door so that maybe he won't be too angry with me, as I hear him open the door._

_When the door flies open, I can that it's not him. Standing there in front of me is a tall man with long, slicked back, blonde hair. I try to think of a spell, but my mind draws a blank and I am hit with a stream of yellow light and then darkness._

Aurora woke up screaming at the top of her lungs. She knew that she shouldn't have, she had had this dream a hundred times before, but she could still feel the white hot pain that ensued after having that nightmare. The only person who could make the pain and the memory of the nightmare go away was Tom, and he was nowhere to be found tonight. 'He's probably at one of his meetings again.'

She decided to wait up for him, since she wouldn't be able to go back to sleep without him anyways. She looked over at the clock on her night stand beside the bed. '12:30 in the morning. Damn! He won't be back for another couple of hours. What to do while I wait?' She looked around the room. 'I spend all day in here, so I've read all of these books, I've listened to all of this music, and I have no one to write any letters to, so the only thing to do in here is sit by the fire and wait. But if I do that, then the fire will warm me up enough, and he'll know what happened. Maybe I could explore the castle?'

She thought about it for a little while longer, and while she had promised Tom that she wouldn't go wandering around the castle without him there to guide her, she couldn't stand being in this room right now with nothing to do but sleep and still being unable to do that right now. After some deliberation, she went to hand changed her clothes so she wouldn't be going about the castle in her night clothes.

After she changed into a pair of dark blue jeans, a black lace-top spaghetti strap top, and a pair of black strappy sandals, she headed for the door to the rooms, and was greeted by Tom at the door.

"Tom! I'm so glad your back." She threw her arms around his neck in an attempt to distract him.

"Hey baby! Where were you planning on going at this time of morning, all alone?" he said, pulling her back into the room.

"I was planning on exploring the castle for a little while."

"You know I don't want you wandering around here without me or a guard with you. there are too many ways that you could get hurt, lost, or killed, and I don't want any harm at all to come to you."

"I needed to get out of here for a while, and besides, I wasn't going to go far."

"That dosen't matter Aurora. Even just going down the hall, the rooms can change on you, and you could get lost fast. Why are you even up at all? When I left earlier, you were sound asleep and peaceful," Tom said confusedly.

"I had that dream again. You weren't here to help me get back to sleep, and I couldn't take being in this room any longer if I couldn't sleep. Will you take me around the now that you are back, please?"

"Aurora, I am tired and I don't have the energy to take you around the castle tonight."

"We don't have to go far, just a little ways, just so I can get rid of that dream , and then right back here and into bed," she practically begged.

Tom tried to steel himself her request, but one look at her full pouting lips as they quivered and her big sapphire eyes as they began to fill with the ready-to-shed tears, and he lost all resolve. "You know I could never deny you anything you truly desired. Five minutes around the castle, and then back here, no arguments." Tom was trying to sound forceful, knowing full well that she was pulling the strings tonight. As with everyother night.

With a quick peck on the cheek, they set out for her tour around the castle. He hadn't meant to take her as far as he had, but Tom would have done anything to keep that smile on her face. He knew all too well of the horrible things that had happened in Aurora's past, even if she could no longer remember them herself.

'It was six and a half years ago, to the day, when I found her on a table, chained down, bruised, bleeding, and broken, in mind, body, and spirit. Lucius had her as one of his "special" captives, which he had never spoken to me about.

I had been taking my customary stroll around the castle that day, mostly around the dungeons so I could make sure that the prisoners were being treated "correctly", when I heard her. at first, I only thought that her scream was just like all of the others, but as I came closer to her room and could hear here blood curdling screams, I could feel a pang within my heart, and I knew that I couldn't allow this to continue any longer.

I burst into the room, interrupting Lucius's rhythm, and threw him up against the wall. She was bruised all over her body and completely naked. I undid the shackles, covered her frail form with my cloak and carried her back to my bedroom. On the way to the rooms, she managed to muster enough strength before she passed out to say, "I knew you would find me my love." '

Screams!"Aurora!" the screams broke Tom from his thoughts, but to his horror, Aurora was no longer by his side, and he just heard a female's screams. He noticed all too late that they had wondered down to the dungeons, and that meant that she would have to relive all of those horrible memories, that she had managed to forget so long ago, again. "Aurora! Where are you? speak to me!" she never said a word, which scarred Tom even more. he started to frantically search for her, calling out, "Aurora!", every few moments.

After about the third or fourth door, Tom finally found Aurora standing over the body of one of his Death Eaters, with a young, Muggle born, teenage witch cradled in her arms, sobbing violently.


	3. Wiped Out

**A/N: Just because I forgot to let everyone know something about my story, I am putting it here. _Dreams_ look like that, and thoughts or flashbacks are encased in ' '. The only ones in this chapter are for Tom, but others will have theirs in later chapters.**

Tom rushed over to the man on the floor to check to see if he were dead or alive, and found that he was the latter. He had already known that she would never kill anyone, she was too good and pure for that kind of thing, the most she could do was knock him unconscious for a long time and when he woke, he would have a headache that felt like someone was chopping wood inside of his head.

"You swore that you would put a stop to this kind of shit!" He turned around just in time to catch the blur of Aurora as she sped out of that room with the girl in her arms. Tom rushed out of the room just in time to catch a bright light in the eyes, and then the young girl was gone and Aurora was breaking down doors left and right.

In just about every room she pulled out some cowering and quivering young girl and apperated them back to their families with an altered memory so they wouldn't be bale to remember the horrible things that had happened to them. And this usually docile and calm creature became a wild, infuriated monster, damn near killing the Death Eaters that occupied the rooms, and any others who tried to stop her.

By the time she finished clearing out the dungeons, she had passed out from a combination of fatigue, an over use of her powers, and pure red rage. Tom rushed over to her side, forgetting about everyone else, and carried her off to their rooms so she could recover from the ordeal.

'I didn't have enough time to tell her who I was, or that her "love" wasn't the one who had saved what was left of her life. The moment that she forced that little bit out of me, she passed out in my arms.

The poor thing slept for weeks on end, not once had she woken up, or even so much as stirred in her sleep. During that time, I either spent it by her side, tended to her wounds, or visited Lucius in his new room and beat him within an inch of his life, but always with a charm on him that made him heal completely after that night so I could do it to him again when I would find a new cluster of bruises on her body.

I never could figure out what possessed me to do these things; rescuing her, taking care of her, and beating my left hand man for doing something that I had taught him to do years ago. At first I had simply chucked it up to the fact that he had a "special captive" without respect enough to inform me of her presence, but he has had plenty of women and men whom he has held captive like that, in one way or another, and not told me about, and I have never punished him like this for that. so what could it be?

After a month of this routine, I had come to realize that just being near her made me think and fell things that I had never felt about anyone. But that still didn't explain why I had saved her from the dungeons.

Her scream! That night, when I heard her scream, I not only heard it, I felt it as well. The sheer shock of it, and the fear that it had caused within me; pure fear. The same kind of fear that I had instilled in others so many times.

About a week later she began to come to, never much, just long enough to get something to eat or drink, and she never did go back to that unconscious state. She managed to remain in only a very deep sleep, so she dreamt and stirred at night now, reliving all of those horrible things that that monster had done to her. And because she was no longer unconscious, she felt the pain in her body from the parts that were healing, so I had to begin to give her pain suppressant potions so she could at least be more comfortable as she lay there al day and night.

When her dreams started, I connected Lucius' mind to her's and made him live through the painful dreams and memories from her point of view. Just another torture I believed fitting for this situation.'

Aurora woke to find Tom hovering over her bedside with a worried look on his face.

"Go away," she said weakly as she turned away from him.

Tom crawled into the bed and put his arms around her waist I an attempt to reassure her. "Aurora, please don't ask me to leave here alone? you know that I can't bear the thought of you being unhappy either with me or anyone. Please allow me to make it up to you?"

"I said go away!" She pulled his arms off of her and moved farther away from him.

Tom became infuriated and forcefully turned her to face him, "You don't tell me what to do in my own home, my room, my bed! No one tells me what to do, NO ONE!"

Aurora did the only thing that she could think to do at that time. She was frightened by his sudden outburst of anger towards her, his first angry words at her. When she became frightened or angry, she did everything possible to get rid of the thing or person which caused those feelings.

Tom could see the frightened look in her eyes, but before he could calm down enough to apologize to her and comfort her, he saw a bright white light and then the door to their bedroom being closed by some unknown person, and then the sound of a magical lock clicking and her sobs played in his ears for the rest of the night.

'I have never raised my voice or temper towards her, not even in the beginning, when she truly tried my patients.

After she finally began to be awake more often than she was asleep, she began to cower away from me, and continuously asked me who I was and where "he" was. She was still so fragile from everything Lucius had done to her, that she couldn't accept her new surroundings first thing in the morning. I would have to break her a little bit every morning when I would have to tell her who I was and that "he" had never saved her.

Slowly she began to take in everything around her, and she even quit asking me who I was and began to call me by my name first thing in the morning when I would come to visit her, in what was now her room.

I never told her who I really was. It just seemed correct to tell her my name from school. As far as she was concerned, I was Tom Riddle, and I had a legion of followers at my beck and call, but they were never allowed near her. It wasn't like I was ashamed of who I was, but I didn't think she would be able to handle being in a room with Lord Voldemort, after being tortured and tormented by one of his followers.

After another couple of weeks she was completely healed form her bruises, but she was still mentally and emotionally damaged, plus she was now going to have to learn to walk all over again.

It was amazing how fast I had changed from being a truly evil wizard, hell bent on ridding the world of all muggles and muggleborns, to caretaker and all around mediwizard to this young, fragile thing that Lucius obviously had here for a reason.

After we started working together on her walking I didn't have the time I would have liked to torment Lucius, so I decided that it was time that I allowed him out of the dungeons. He returned to his duties, but he had a much tighter leash on his privileges. Lucius was no longer allowed to do whatever he wanted, and he was no longer allowed to have "special captives", plus he was restricted from Aurora's room and I ordered him and my Death Eaters to stay out of any area she might venture to when she could walk around freely again.

At first we would work on it only in the morning when she would have the most strength. Eventually as her bodily strength progressed, so did her spirit and resolve, so we would work throughout the afternoon. But we would have an evening break so she would have the strength to start again the next morning.

One day I came into her room with breakfast as always and sat it across the room so she could have her warm-up, but she was in so much pain that she couldn't get out of bed that day. She swore that all she wanted to do that day was to just stay in bed and rest. So I allowed her to do what she wanted while I spent the day catching up on the things that I had allowed to slip. I promised her that I'd have dinner with her that evening, but I wouldn't be able to see her again that day until then. She was out cold by the time that I finished my short speech.

I spent the rest of that long, boring day around my men and in the dungeons supervising some interrogations, but nothing helped the boredom. When there was no one around, my thoughts would drift to that beautiful blonde goddess laying asleep in my old bed.

I left earlier than I had originally planned to that night and decided to surprise Aurora by taking her out of the rooms and up to the starlight tower for dinner that night. However, when I got to her room that night, I got a surprise of my own…'

Tom had just fallen asleep outside of the door to Aurora's room when he came crashing to the ground.

"Good morning," Aurora said as sarcastically as she could as she came down to his level on the ground.

"I am so sorry that I went off on you like that last night. Can you ever forgive me?"

Aurora looked down at him and tried to get passed what she had found the night before in the dungeons. "I can't promise anything, but I'll try."

"What do you mean, you can't promise anything?"

"Well, if you can't keep your promises to me, then how can possibly expect me to be able to keep any promises that I make to you?"

Tom gave her a blank stare, silently asking, "What promise did I break to you?"

"Before I under went the memory wipe, I made you promise to stop all of this things that had happened in the dungeons, especially the rape and brutality by your Death Eaters. Do you remember now?"

"Yes. But how do you?" He was completely confused.

"And you swore to me that even if I didn't remember the promise, that you would still keep it."

Aurora was looking intently into his eyes, waiting for him to respond in some way to what she had just said, but Tom was completely dumfounded. She helped him onto his feet and led him over to their bed so he could spend the rest of the nigh laying next to her.

Once she finally got him to lay down and get comfortable, she laid down on his chest and fell back to sleep.

'How could she possibly have remembered that promise?'


	4. Hope

**A/N: Something I forgot to put in on the last chapter, but '' will also signify thoughts. Hopefully everyone is enjoying the story, and hasn't gotten lost or too confused.**

"Sherbet lemon," said a rather irritated Severus Snape.

The phoenix statue that signaled the door to the headmaster's office slowly rotated, revealing the spiral staircase, allowing Severus entry to Dumbledore's office.

Dumbledore sat patiently up in his office awaiting Snape, but for false pretenses. Dumbledore sent a message to Snape telling him to come for a meeting about a Potions Conference that he had been invited to speak at, but all the while, he had something else entirely to speak to him about.

_Knock! Knock! Knock!_ "Enter."

"Why couldn't this wait until tomorrow Albus? I have important things to be doing at the moment." It was all a lie, both knew it, but that was the story he would stick to.

"Trust me my boy," he said with that smile of his that always seems to reach his eyes when he's trying to convey a semi-secret to someone else, "this is very important."

"I'm sorry, I just don't see how a meeting about yet another potions conference is very important at all. It's especially not important enough to put a charm on the message so that I would hiccup bubbles, pink and bright blue, until I verbally agreed to come," Snape said, even more angrier than when he had arrived in his office.

"Because, my boy, this has nothing to do with a potions conference that has invited you to speak at it."

"Then why the bloody hell am I here Albus?"

"I may have found her."

The one thing that Dumbledore could have possibly said, if it were true, that could have possibly made this farce of a meeting worth while.

Severus sunk down deeper into his chair with disbelief written all over his face.

"No! There's no possible way you've found her! it's been seven fucking years and I have come to terms with it. She's dead, she's never coming back. Lucius killed her, or he handed her over to the Death Eaters and they tortured her until she died."

Severus was numb all over. He wanted to lunge at Albus for dredging up these old memories, he wanted to break down and cry from the images of her fragile body being ripped apart by those vultures, but most of all, he just wanted to forget that he had ever known her in hopes that the memory would fade, and he would one day be able to move on and out of this depressing place he was always in.

"She's not alive, not coming back, and you didn't find her!" With that he stormed out of Dumbledore's office with his cloak billowing behind him.

'It's impossible! He's the one who told me to move on and come to terms. All of a sudden, now he wants to try and tell me that he _might_ have found her. MIGHT!'

The potions professor charged into his dungeon rooms, went straight for his case of Fire Whiskey, picked up the full bottle sitting next to the one that he hadn't finished last night, and sat in front of his fireplace to brood. His very important business that he told Dumbledore he had.

'It's absolutely impossible. **:takes a swig:** That overly happy man may be able to do a lot of things, but not even the great Dumbledore can bring people back from the dead. **:takes a swig:** But what if… No! I will never go back to that horrible place called hope. **:takes a swig:**

He took her, tortured her, and then he killed her so he could punish me for his justified doubts about me. **:takes a swig:**

It's all my fault. **:takes a swig:** I killed her. :**takes a swig:**'

"You shouldn't treat yourself like that, and you shouldn't think like that either." A woman's voice came to Severus from out of nowhere.

"Who said that? Where are you?"

There was no answer.

"Come out and face me whoever you are! I don't have time for games!"

'Who am I kidding? I have nothing but time. She's not here and I still can't bring myself to even look at another woman. I lost my only chance, and it was all my fault. **:takes a swig:**'

"You could have another chance if you would only allow yourself to move on," came the female voice again.

"Who are you and why do you come to me now?"

No answer. _Knock! Knock! Knock!_

Severus walked over to the door with the intent to send the person away. He just hadn't been expecting to see who was standing outside of his door.

There she was, Aurora, looking as young and as beautiful as the day she first came to private sessions with him. In fact, she was dressed in the exact same clothes, and she was just as shy looking as when he had first opened his door for her.

But he wasn't thinking with his brain, he was thinking with his heart, so he ran to her to take her up in his arms like he had dreamed to be able to do again so many times since she had been taken.

"Oh my God! Aurora! He actually found you!"

As he reached out to hold her in his arms, he went right through her and ran into the wall opposite. When he recovered from the shock, Severus grew even more bitter than he had been before.

'So this is what Albus was talking about. This is what he meant when he said that he had found you, he found your spirit and brought you back here.'

"I'm sorry I'm late for the lesson, but I got lost. However, I did figure out where I went wrong, so next lesson I should be on time."

With that the spirit walked into the room, after a short pause that looked as though she had been waiting for someone to either move out of the way so she could pass, or for someone to finish scolding her.

Severus wasn't particularly interested in entertaining a ghost, but he wasn't about to allow her spirit to chase him out of his room. And he did want to be able to see her again if she again if she was going to be hanging around.

Severus walked into the room without hesitation and slammed the door to the room. _Bang! _He hadn't looked up at her since he ran right through her, so he hadn't noticed when she flinched ever so slightly.

Professor Snape went back to his bottle of Fire Whiskey in front of the fire so he could finish brooding and just be in the room with her again, even if she was just the spirit reliving their first real encounter. He had replayed all of their scenes together in his head a million times since she had disappeared, so what was a million and one.

The room remained quiet except for the sounds the crackling fire made as it snapped and popped.

'She should be talking by now, unless I am supposed to interact with her. There is no way I am going to participate in this little game. Not even for her.'

A few minutes passed and still the room remained quiet.

Severus poked his head out from around the high back of one of his armchairs so he could get a good look at her. She was standing in awe, numbly looking around his dungeon room, nothing like she had the first time she had showed up there.

Severus stood up from his chair, walked over to Aurora's spirit, and waved his hand in front of her face to bring her back to his reality. He didn't really think that it would work since she wasn't even supposed to be able to be there, but it did.

Aurora came crashing back to reality with an unusually large jerk. She bounced back so far that she fell back on a stool and toppled it over as she came crashing to the ground.

Without thinking, Snape came to her side and helped her up to her feet. It wasn't until he was setting the stool back to it's original position that it dawned on him.

'Did I just help her up? Did she just knock over a stool? Did I finally get to feel her skin next to my own?'

"Aurora, is that really you?" He still very badly wanted to run to her and embrace her, but he didn't relish the idea of running through her and straight into another wall.

"Yes it's me, but who the bloody hell are you? And where am I?" She had backed away from him while saying this and Severus could see real terror in her eyes.

"My name is Professor Severus Snape, Potions Master at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. And this place is my dungeon bedroom at Hogwarts Castle. You have no need to fear me."

He wanted to go over to her and put his arms around her so she wouldn't be afraid of him, but he could tell that would only land him in the infirmary with broken bones and a concussion.

'How am I going to get close enough to her to calm her down if she is only going to blast my bloody ass into oblivion if I come too close to her?'

"How did I get here?" Her voice was barely over a whisper, and Snape could see from where he was sanding that she was shaking from fear.

"I honestly don't know. What's the last thing you remember?"

'What do I remember? Tom took me around the castle, and into the dungeons. Then…'

Severus could see her physically and mentally break down. He acted on impulse and ran back to her side to catch her before she hit the ground. He pulled her close to his chest and allowed her to just cry out whatever she was working through. Severus scooped her up in his arms and brought her to the couch by the fireplace so they could both be comfortable.

Hours passed by and the only thing that Aurora ever said was, "He swore he would make them stop. Tom swore to me, and he broke his promise."

'Who is Tom? What kind of promise did he break to her? Has she been with another man since me?

Of course she has! She's a beautiful young girl. He probably rescued her from Voldemort's dungeons and nursed her back to health.

But what promise could he have broken to her that would do this to her?'

Aurora's crying had ceased, and she was sleeping peacefully in his arms and on his chest.

Severus looked over at the clock sitting on his desk, realized that he had only about a couple of ours to get some sleep before his NEWTS level class came in, and carried Aurora over to his bed so he could stretch out on the couch.

Snape picked her back up and carried her over to his bed. He pulled out his wand and levitated back the covers so he could simply lay her down and then cover her up. However, when he had her all comfortable in the bed, alone, and went to go over to the couch, she awoke.

"Please don't leave me? I didn't want to be alone," she pleaded with him.

"I'm not going to leave. I was merely going to allow you the privacy of my bed and go lay on the couch by the fireplace. I didn't want you to have to wake up laying next to me and not know why."

"That's too far away. Please, I don't wish to run you out of your own bed. It's more than enough room for the both of us to share it comfortably. Plus, I would feel much safer here if you would hold me like you were doing over on the couch earlier."

"Just allow me to get ready for bed, and I will join you."

Aurora turned over so he could change his clothes semi-privately, and Severus walked over to his wardrobe.

He removed all of his clothes except his boxers, but decided that it would be more proper if her were to wear some pajama bottoms at least. He didn't he to think that he was expecting something from her just because she was here in his bed and stirring up all of those old feelings that had never truly faded away.

He crawled in the bed from the other side and came in only to the middle part of his side of the bed, not wanting to presume anything concerning her since she had already fallen asleep.

Severus lay there completely relaxed watching her sleep. He didn't dare disturb her, but he couldn't shake the feeling of want. A want to hold her for as long as she was going to be here in his bed, to always have her close to him, and a want that he had actually found her, or rather that she had finally found him again after so long.

Aurora woke ever so slightly and starred up into his deep chocolate eyes. "I thought that you were going to hold me. If you are way over there, than you won't be able to reach me."

"You were asleep when I got into bed and I didn't want to wake you, so I just laid down over here until you either woke up, or I fell asleep."

She gave him a lazy smile and crawled over to his side of the bed to lay in his arms.


	5. Memories Returned

**Disclaimer: I still only own the main love interest in the story.**

**A/N: Hopefully you can all except the explaination in the story about Aurora'a trips. I tried to give it as much of a Harry Potter feel to it as I could, but with a twist of my own thoughts. Enjoy**

They woke late the next morning, but neither was happy when the sleepiness wore off.  
oOoOoOo

Snape had awoke to an otherwise empty bed, late for at least three of his classes, and confused at to what had really happened that night.

'Did any of that happen? Was it just some drunken illusion? Am I losing my mind?'  
oOoOoOo

Aurora woke in her bed, but with another man's arms encircling her waist in some protective gesture. This man didn't smell faintly of herbs and spices from potions brewed over the years, she felt safe in his arms, but not in the same way she had last night, (it had been more that she knew she didn't have to fear the evil that surrounded her, rather than knowing that the one who was holding her would protect her with his dying breath) and everything about the room was wrong.

When she finally realized where she was, she felt like weeping, but couldn't, as it would alert Tom that something was wrong with her, and she couldn't bare to have him wake with her sobs.  
oOoOoOo

This morning, unlike any other morning, she was far more alert when she felt Tom's arms. Everything felt more real to her, and she knew in her heart of hearts that she didn't belong here with this man, but she didn't know if she'd be able to leave him.

He had after all rescued her from Lucius and nursed her back to health, all while keeping all of the dark magic away from her. But on the other hand, he was Voldemort; the enemy, the man who had sent Severus to kill her all those years ago, if he could not convert her over to his side of the war first.

Aurora had made it over to the window alcove and fell into a deep thought, so deep that she hadn't heard Tom get out of the bed and make his way over to her.

"Good morning beautiful."

The sound of his deep baritone voice startled her enough to make her jump an inch or two in the air.

"What's wrong Aurora? You almost look like your afraid of me." He had both a look of confusion and morning bliss on his face.

"It's… it's nothing. I just had a strange dream and you startled me out of a deep thought. I'm fine, really I am. Good morning, or rather good afternoon."

Tom looked down at her, thought for a moment, and leaned down to give her a kiss. But, instead of meeting him halfway like she normally would, and he had expected, she looked away at the last moment, and his lips landed on her head.

He could tell from that moment that there was something wrong with her, that she didn't want to bother him with it yet, and she was hoping to solve it without having to bother him with it, so he left her to her thinking.

Almost instantly after he left the room and she heard the door close, she began to cry. All of the tears that had threatened to fall while she was laying in his arms earlier had finally broken through. She cried so long and hard, that she cried herself to sleep.  
oOoOoOo

Severus did something that day that he would normally never have done, but this was an emergency. Instead of asking Dumbledore to cover the rest of his classes, since he needed to talk to his old friend about what had happened last night, and having made it a policy to never allow the children a day off of classes if there wasn't a holiday inforced by the Headmaster himself, he requested that Hermione Granger, seventh year, know-it-all Gryffindor, cover the rest of the classes for the day, since they were third year and lower.

He knew he could have requested one of the other teachers take over his classes, Merlin only knows how many of their classes he had covered over the years. But he didn't feel that any of the other teachers could handle teaching his subject in the correct manner, and at least Granger was a student who feared and respected him, therefore she could be trusted to follow his syllabus to the letter. So for the rest of the day, he had even given her the ability to take of house points, as need warranted, in his class room.  
oOoOoOo

Snape headed for the Headmaster's office after pulling out the things that Hermione would need for the classes. When he got into Dumbledore's office, he wasn't greeted with the usual smile that reaches the eyes and a "Hello my boy." Instead Dumbledore's back was turned to him and there appeared to be another person in the room.

"Albus, quit codling that child and send them away. I must speak to you, and I don't need teenage ears listening."

Dumbledore turned to face his very good friend and showed off the "teenage ears" that would be listening to their conversation.

"Aurora!" She ran to his open arms and buried her face in his chest.

"Do you still wish her to leave the room, or are her ears old enough to hear what you have to say to me?" His usual smile had crept up to his eyes. "I don't like to say it, but I told you I had found her."

"Not to be rude old friend, but you said that you might have found her, and she came to me last night. So you didn't find her, she found me," Severus said without ever even looking away from Aurora's face.

"Did you have something that you wanted to talk to me about?"

"I had, but now that Aurora's here, I can ask her." He led her over to one of the couches in Dumbledore's office so they could be more comfortable, and Dumbledore could still be apart of the conversation.

"What happened to you last night? I fell asleep with you in my arms, and when I woke up, you were gone."

"I really don't know. I had fallen asleep in the first place with Tom, and I had a dream about your room, and then I was there last night. Then after I fell asleep in your arms last night, I woke up back in Tom's arms. But I fell asleep in the window alcove this morning after he left, and I was here, about five minutes before you walked in the door."

The two men looked at one another, silently consulting one another about what could possibly be causing all of the "apparating" . Severus was the one who eventually spoke.

"It almost sounds like you were astroprojecting, but that doesn't explain how we are able to feel one another. I would say that you were apparating, but there is an anti-apparation spell on the castle, and that doesn't explain why I ran through you last night when you were at my door."

"It could be a mixture of the two. Pure Light Entities have powers that most witches and wizards could never fathom. There is a very strong possibility that she may be able to blend the two abilities to create one power so she has a way around specific charms and spells," Dumbledore interjected.

There was a slightly strained silence between the three in the room while they all absorbed what had been said. But a stray thought crept back into Albus' mind and it nagged at him until he had to comment on it.

"My dear, not to change subjects too fast, but did you say Tom before?"

"Yes, I did. Why?"

"Do you know his last name?" asked Dumbledore, with a fading smile on his face.

Aurora thought for a moment, and Snape could almost see the light bulb go off in her mind as the answer came to her. "Riddle. His name is Tom Marvelo Riddle."

The colors from both of their faces drained the moment she said Marvelo and stayed gone.

Aurora looked at the both of them and instantly knew what was going through their minds, the same thing that she had discovered this morning while laying in his arms. That all of this time, she had been with the enemy, Voldemort.

She had been with him and he hadn't known that the woman that was in his bed every night was the same woman whom he had ordered to either be converted or killed. She was the very same Light Entity that he had feared on the good side, but craved to have on his side of the war.

Snape looked at his old friend, a brief moment passed when neither quite knew what to do, but Snape finally broke the silence by embracing Aurora and saying, "I don't care where you've been all this time, I only care that you made it back to me finally."

Aurora pulled out of his arms, and they could both see the look on her face: fear mixed with guilt. She got up from the couch and braced herself near the fireplace for what she had to say, and the torrent of questions that would follow.

"I haven't exactly come back to you, at least not for good, yet."

"Why!" Snape was dumbfounded and Albus just stood there like he already knew why.


	6. Confessions & Explanations

**A/N: I hope that you are enjoying the story so far. I would hope that I am keeping you on the edge of your seat throughout the story, but that might be a little much to hope for. Enjoy. **

"You would never understand even if I told you," said Aurora trying to understand herself.

"Just tell me Aurora. You've never hidden anything from me, and I've even told you my deepest secrets. There's nothing that you could tell me that would make me think of you any less."

"Severus my boy, maybe you should just leave this alone. don't you have another training session with young Mister Malfoy?"

"Malfoy! What are you training him for? Is his father not teaching him fast enough for you?" Just the mention of his name made Aurora feel all of the pain Lucius had caused her all over again. The pain that Severus hadn't saved her from, but that Tom, or Voldemort, had.

"Do you really want to know why I can't come back to you completely yet? Well, I'll tell you. because I love him."

Just then she was sitting in a window alcove starring up at Tom's face, instead of standing next to a fireplace looking deep into the soul of the man that she had loved in another lifetime.

"Aurora, what are you doing there? And why were you sleeping?"

"Tom," she looked up into his eyes, almost pleading for him to forgive her of all that she had done, and discovered in the last couple of days, "I have something that I must tell you."

He offered his hand to her so he could lead them to a more comfortable place to talk. Aurora only looked from his face to his hand, then back to his face. Tom could see that she was having trouble finding the courage to tell him, or trust him, but he refused to waiver.

"You must promise me that you won't get angry with me." She had said it in such a small voice that he thought she hadn't really said anything, but figured that his temper was being questioned, so he merely gave her the response she needed to hear. "I love you and could never be angry with you."

With that, Aurora took his outstretched hand and allowed him to lead her over to the couch so they both sit down while she said what was on her mind.

They sat there for some space of time in silence while Aurora tried to find the exact words to use and the best way to begin her confession. Finally, Tom broke the silence, but scared Aurora in the process.

"You do realize that you can always tell me anything and I won't judge you or think any less of you? But if you don't start talking soon, I'm going to have to leave you until you find your words, courage, whatever you're searching for. I have to get back to work, or else my men will undoubtedly fuck everything up."

Tom looked at Aurora for a moment, and when she made no move to begin talking, he got up to leave the room.

"When you get ready to talk to me, send someone to fetch me."

He made it halfway to the door before she had enough courage to speak. "I know who you really are, Voldemort." The last part added as almost an after thought.

He spun around on his heels and came at her with such force and speed, she thought that he was going to hurt her.

"Where did you hear that name?" He had placed a little too much emphasis and urgency in his voice, and had almost made it sound like he was yelling at her.

She became frightened and shaky as she tried to calm him down, "You promised that you wouldn't get angry!"

He stopped dead in his tracks and visibly calmed. "I'm not angry, I was merely surprised. I've never allowed anyone to call me that in front of you, and I've never used that name in your presence either, so I couldn't understand how you would have known that name, or that it was mine."

"I remember everything from my past. Everything!"

Voldemort sat down on the couch with her so she could get everything out without fear of an attack on his part.

She spent a good half hour explaining everything to him about the dreams she had been having, how the memories had been resurfacing ever since that night in the dungeons, and how she had been making "trips" to Hogwarts.

Voldemort had seemed calm through almost of her explanation. All but the part about her being the Pure Light Element, and that Severus had spent all of that time falling in love with her, rather than doing what he had been sent to do, and it infuriated him to find out that his right hand had been a spy for the blasted Order, but he kept it guarded form her so she need not fear him.

"So when you had found me there in the alcove, I had just come back from Hogwarts. Severus and I were having an argument on why I couldn't stay with him there, and just as I had told him that I still love you, even though I know who you are, I was shaken a wake by you here."

Voldemort sat stone still for the length of five deep breaths before Aurora couldn't take the silence any longer.

"Are you angry at me?"

He looked at her and saw some of that pure fear that he had felt in her scream the night he had saved her from Lucius, and scooped her up into his arms to comfort away the fear.

"I already told you before that I could never be angry with you."

"Do you believe me?"

"Yes. I especially believe that you love me, or else you could have gone on pretending to not have had your memories and started spying for the Order like Severus has been doing for these long years."

"You won't hurt Severus will you? I only ask because it would hurt me just as much if you hurt him. I love him just as much as you, and I don't think I could bare it if hurt befell either of you."

"I promise on my love for you, I won't harm a single greasy hair on Severus' head. But, I will be telling him that I know about his spying, and force him to chose a side once and for all."

Aurora spent the rest of the night in Voldemort's arms, sleeping on and off, while his men came to him for orders. When he was sure that Aurora was sleeping peacefully, he called Lucius to him.

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When he heard the door close, Voldemort halted Lucius with a single motion.

"That's far enough. I won't allow you any farther in this room while Aurora is in here asleep, you still giver her nightmares. I have a mission for you."

"I will willingly do anything my master bids."

"I know. Go fetch Severus for me. he should be in the middle of teaching classes right now. Bring him by force if you must, but get him here immediately! I have a few things I need to discuss with him."

"Yes my lord. He shall be here promptly."

As Lucius turned to leave, Voldemort remembered his promise to Aurora and said, "And Lucius, don't harm him in any way."

"Yes my lord."

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Sure enough, Severus was in the midst of a class, but with only one student, by the time Lucius had arrived on the grounds of Hogwarts. The anti-apparation spells on the grounds and school itself made it impossible for Lucius, or any students, to sneak into the school.

By the time Lucius got through the security and down to the dungeons where the Potion's classes were held, Snape was in the middle of a private session with Draco Malfoy.

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Professor Severus Snape had been named Draco Malfoy's god-father while he was still loyal to the Dark Lord and the Death Eater tribe.

Shortly after Draco's fifth birthday, Severus decided that he could no longer stand idly by and not try to stop the mad men he had pledged his life to.

While Lucius taught Draco the Dark Arts at home and planned that he would learn even more at Hogwarts from his god-father, secretly, Snape had been undermining his teachings. Snape had begun to teach Draco Light Magic during his visits and then increased the lessons and the intensity of those lessons while he was at Hogwarts, making Lucius believe that his son had a natural knack for the Dark Arts, when it was the Light that came naturally to him.

Draco was told to keep up the facade of being the Slytherin Prince, and all around hater of muggleborns, so his father would never suspect that anything was a miss with his son and the plans he had made for him.

Because of this, he had to miss out on the true friends that he could have had, always watching them from the side lines. Some of the things that he did to the Trio came naturally to him, but the day he called Hermione a Mudblood for the first time, made him sick to his stomach, even though Ron's curse had back fired.

After his father had heard of this, Draco was nearly praised. Draco knew that from then on he would have to continually attack Hermione in that fashion and in even worse ways until the day that Voldemort had been taken care of, and his family were no longer an issue in his life's choices. Which was what he and his god-father were working to at this very moment.

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"Severus, I have orders to… Draco!" Lucius had meant to go in and find Severus grading papers, or getting rid of a student that had finished cleaning duties for their detention with him, not him instructing his son in what appeared to be a private lesson like some lesser wizard.

"Father! what brings you to Hogwarts at this time of the evening?"

"I came here for your god-father, but the real question is why are you here? Shouldn't you be studying or practicing your magic control?"

"That's why he's here Lucius. I have been giving my god-son private lessons even since he started coming here so he could stay well above the level expected of him by this school, and he could become one of us all the more sooner."

Severus was attempting to take control of the situation so Draco wouldn't have to lie to his father, since Draco had never quite mastered that ability. He could lie to anyone else without blinking and eye and get away with it, but somehow, Lucius could always sense when Draco was lying to him.

"Oh! Well, we'll have to cut the lesson short tonight. the Dark Lord wishes to speak with you immediately."

"I would, but you know I am unable to leave here while the school year is in session. I have duties I must perform, and papers to grade before tomorrow." Severus was really not in the mood to go and have a talk with the man who had managed to steal Aurora's heart from him.

"I have orders to bring you in whether or not you want to come. And I am more than willing to use force if I have to."

Draco had been pushed behind Severus when Lucius began to talk about using force. Severus was afraid Draco would end up getting caught in the middle of something and get hurt.

"I wouldn't suggest doing anything rash here. Someone might walk in and see you here, without authorization."

"I don't need it. My son attends this school, and if I chose to come and visit him, I can at whatever time I deem worthy. Now come, my patients is wearing thin and my wand is ready for anything."

Draco, who had been on the wrong side of his father's wrath far too many times, could see his father's temper beginning to boil, and that always meant danger was fast approaching.

Fearing that his father would strike his god-father, Draco began to form a barrier just in case Lucius' temper flew off the handle.

"I already told you, I'm not leaving right now. I suggest you leave and tell Voldemort that when I can get out of my duties here, I'll come to him willingly. Until then, I must decline his "invitation" to talk."

"You are coming with me NOW!"

With that, a flash of blue light came from Lucius' wand flying straight at Severus.


	7. Back at Hogwarts

My Immortal Love - Chapter 6 - Back at Hogwarts

"No!"

Aurora had been sleeping so peacefully in tom's arms, that she had inadvertedly connected herself to what was happening in the dungeons of Hogwarts. Just as the curse had been cast, Aurora apparated in front of Severus so she could protect him.

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The curse itself wouldn't have been a deadly, or even a painful one, just something to knock him out so he could bring Severus back with him, but when added with the amount of malice Lucius was felling, it could have leveled an entire army.

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Tom had woken with her scream and seen her apparate out of the room. He knew exactly where she was going, but couldn't readily think of a reason why she would be going with such alarm in her voice.

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Both Severus and Draco saw the light from Lucius' wand coming at them and then the barrier that Draco had created appear in front of them. Usually, a simple barrier would have been enough to either bounce back the curse or make it disappear, but this curse was fueled with far more Dark Magic than was needed for it, so it continued to barrel down on Draco's barrier.

Then, just as a crack began to form, another flash of light appeared in front of Severus, inside the barrier, and there appeared Aurora. No one saw another barrier form in front of her, but they did see the blue flash come straight at her, and then it disappeared, along with Lucius.

All of this happened within a matter of seconds.

As Lucius disappeared, aurora collapsed right there were she stood.

"Aurora!" Severus could barely believe what had happened, or that Aurora had appeared just then.

"Professor?" Draco was still stunned that his father would strike at anyone else with so much force, with him there in a possible line of fire, and not even hit his target. He knew he had to meet this young woman who was laying on the floor and had just saved their asses.

"Draco, go get Madam Pomfrey! Now!"

Aurora was unconscious, and Severus was afraid that she might die, for real, after seeing that curse break through Draco's barrier and not having saw her put one up to save herself.

"Aurora, why did you do such a foolish thing? I would never have wanted you to put yourself in danger for me. I love you too much to see you like this."

Poppy burst into the room wearing heavy bed clothes and a night cap along with Dumbledore in his bed clothes.

"What happened? Draco couldn't explain it to me on the way down here." Poppy was calm and collected on the outside, but a bundle of nerves on the inside at seeing Aurora unconscious on the floor in Severus' arms after all of these years.

"Malfoy was here, and when I wouldn't go with him to see Voldemort, he threw a curse at me. Draco tried to protect us both, but it broke through and then hit her instead of us. She didn't even have time to put up a barrier to protect herself." By the end, Severus was in tears, holding Aurora's limp body as close to him as he could, without hurting her anymore than she already was.

Madam Pomfrey gently took Aurora from Severus and levitated her to the Hospital Wing for examinations and treatment.

All were excluded from the room. Poppy couldn't have everyone seeing her running around everywhere praying that this potion was the right one for her cure, and having nothing help.

After about two hours, a rather exhausted Madam Pomfrey emerged from the Hospital Wing and collapsed on the floor in a dazed state.

"Madam Pomfrey, is she alright?" all of the men exclaimed at once.

She didn't really seem to hear them, or even understand them, she hadn't even registered that they were there. "I tried every known cure, and some experimental ones, and nothing has worked. She hasn't moved a muscle. It's almost as if she's just in a deep sleep, but that couldn't be it. She was hit with some type of curse, right?"

"Yes, I saw her get hit, and then Lucius and the flash disappeared."

"May we go in to see her now?" Dumbledore seemed as calm as Pomfrey had seemed before, but everyone knew that he was just as anxious as Severus to see her come out of this.

"Yes, but I don't see how it will do any good. She is completely unresponsive to everything."

Severus was only half aware of anything Poppy was saying. All he knew was that he was being allowed to see her, and he didn't want to waste anymore time being away from her.

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Unfortunately, Voldemort had also found out what happened to both Lucius and Aurora.

When Lucius disappeared in the dungeons he had reappeared in the presence of Voldemort. He had known Lucius had lost his temper and lashed out at Severus, against orders, Aurora had sensed the danger he was in and gone to protect him.

Voldemort had also felt Aurora's power surge to well above normal and then nose dive to too far below her danger level.

When Lucius reappeared in front of Voldemort, he simply said, "I'll deal with you later," and left his minion half dead on the floor.

Voldemort went to the tallest turret of his castle so he could project himself farther and faster. He placed extra security outside the door and locked it so he couldn't be disturbed, and astroprojected himself to the Hospital Wing of Hogwarts, to be near Aurora, the same way she ad been doing this the whole time.

When he managed to arrive, Madam Pomfrey had already left the room and was talking to those who were outside.

He arrived as his younger self who went to school here known as Tom Riddle, carrying a small red vile with a bubbling concoction within, for Aurora to take.

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As Severus came running in to the room to be near Aurora, he could see a dark form looming over her bed, and he became even more frightened than when he had seen her appear in front of him.

"Get away from her!" Severus acted on impulse and pulled the figure away from her, before he had even realized who he was yelling at. "who are you, and what were you doing to her?"

"I was simply giving her a potion to revive her, Severus. I would have thought that you would have been grateful for any help when it came to her health." He didn't look or sound like his true self, so Severus couldn't understand why one of his students were calling him by his surname as if they were his superior.

"I asked you who you were and I demand to know what you were giving her!"

"Such a temper Severus. You should know better than to talk to your master like that."

"I don't have a master, and you are one of my students. Now answer my questions!"

"Very well, my name is Tom Riddle or as I am better known, Lord Voldemort. And I was merely giving her a concentrated version of a Pepper Up Potion. Her power and energy took a plunge after saving your's and Draco's ass from Lucius' super charged curse."

"That won't work." Severus' tone went soft and remorseful. "She was hit by it. she didn't have time to create a barrier before it broke through Draco's. Pomfrey has done everything in her power to revive her, and nothing has worked." Severus completely calmed and began to talk to him as another adult who also loved her.

"If that were true, then I couldn't be here in this form, or at all. She is my anchor here, just like you are her anchor here. If she were past revival, she would have been brought back to me. You would have seen this already though if you had allowed me to finish administering the potion instead of knocking it out of my hands."

While all of the others had followed Severus into the room and had been stunned to see the young Voldemort standing over Aurora's bed, Poppy had had enough common sense to listen to what was being said and ran to her stock of Pepper Up Potion. Not really wanting to come to near the Dark Lord, even if he were just a projection of him as his younger self, she levitated it over to Severus so he could administer it to Aurora himself.

"Why isn't she waking up?" Severus was in hysterics, he had gone out on a limb and trusted the Dark Lord, and nothing was happening. He lunged at Voldemort and pinned him up against the wall, with one grasped around his neck, and the other reaching for his wand.

"The vial I was going to give her was a concentrated version. It was probably strong enough to revive the dead for a small amount of time. It is used by my Death Eaters while in battle, not that diluted shit you give students who didn't get enough sleep the night before or are coming down with a cold." All of that was being said between gasps for air.

All of those watching were amazement that Voldemort wasn't fighting back. Normally, he would have thrown a curse, or simply just not have taken any of the punishment his body was undergoing, and at least have thrown a punch.

"Severus…" it was barely above a whisper, but heard by both men standing by her bed.

Severus left Voldemort standing by the wall gasping for air and immediately returned to her side. "I'm here Aurora."


	8. Fighting for Love

After Voldemort recovered from what Severus had attempted to do to him, he came around to the other side of Aurora's bed to show her he was there.

"I'm here as well Aurora. I'm glad to see you awake again." Voldemort lightly brushed her cheek with his hand, a routine gesture for him to make, and yet he always put so much care into it.

At his touch, she fell back asleep, and Voldemort took it as a sign that she was ready to leave here and go back home. He very gently slipped his arms underneath her, one under her neck, the other under her knees, and lifted her into the air so he could carry her out of there.

"Where do you think you are taking her!"

"She's coming back home with me, where she belongs. Now move out of my way Severus. I promised her that I wouldn't harm you, even though you have betrayed me for so long. I will forgive that for her sake, but only if you move and don't give me any trouble about taking her out of here."

Voldemort had begun to show his true nature as his temper and arrogance began to take to the surface. He had gone from the young, teenage boy to the dark, menacing Lord Voldemort that all knew and feared.

Just as he had become his absolute true self, Aurora had awoken again and saw for herself the true from of the man whom she had previously professed her love for. His evil, twisted features shocked Aurora and she couldn't understand where the man she had seen and felt only moments ago had disappeared to and why he had left such an evil man in his wake.

"Severus! Help me! Let me go!" Aurora began to fight, feebly as it was, the man who was holding her. She started to kick, scream, and punch, just so he would let her go.

Voldemort, hurt by her actions, not her actual fighting, slowly set her down on her feet, both so he wouldn't drop and hurt her, and so she wouldn't end up hurting herself.

The moment her feet hit the ground, she ran back over to Severus and hid herself in his arms. Severus scooped her up into his arms and took her to a private room in the Infirmary so she needn't be bothered with his very presence.

Hurt, frustrated, and angry, Voldemort stomped out of the Infirmary with only one thing to say…

"I will have her back, or this school will burn!"

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Aurora spent two weeks sleeping in her private room, completely unaware of the twenty-four hour vigil Severus kept at her bedside. He was only ever ripped away from her side when Poppy sent him away for food, a bath, and some sleep of his own. He was afraid to leave her for too long. Anything could happen to her; she could wake up, disappear, or Voldemort could try to make good on his threat and take her away while she slept.

During the two weeks she was in the hospital, Aurora had a recurring dream that she wouldn't remember until the first night she was out of there. And when she finally woke from her two week "vacation from life", she was sluggish, but awake. Just as she was getting out of the bed to change her clothes, Severus came into the room after another tiresome night of attempted sleep.

He hadn't registered that the woman standing in the room was Aurora, he just realized that there was another person besides him standing in the room.

"Is there any progress in her condition?"

"There has been much improvement in her condition," Aurora's voice was barely above a whisper and harsh from unuse.

The voice that replied was one that he had never heard before, so out of curiosity for whom was taking care of the woman he loved, he looked up to see the face of the woman he had seen in a peaceful slumber while he was in there with her.

"Aurora! You're awake!" Severus ran over to her, jumping over the bed that separated their bodies as if it weren't even there, and embraced her while planting a kiss squarely on her lips, crushing them with his force.

"Yes, I'm awake. But I still don't have all of my energy back, so don't expect much from me."

"I can wait for that, I'm just glad that you've finally woken up. We were all beginning to believe that you would never wake up. Come on, let's go down to our room. I'm tired of being here and I have some things that I need to talk to you about, that I don't want stray ears to hear."

Aurora gave Severus a worried look that he couldn't quite interpret, "Down in the dungeons?"

"Yes, why?"

"It's just, I don't think that I have that kind of energy. The last time that something like this happened to me, my doctors told me that if I expended myself too much too soon after an incident like that, I could end up in a coma or I could even die of power loss."

"What did you do last time that this happened to you?" he asked with a worried look evident in his eyes.

"I was a very young witch trying out too advanced a spell. Mind you, I did perform it correctly, but I had to expend too much energy, and I blacked out for about a week and a half. Mum cancelled my training for a month after that happened and forbade me to use any magic for that time so they could be sure that I wouldn't end up killing myself."

"Fair enough. I had planned on carrying you down there anyways, so get dressed and we'll leave."

Severus stepped out of the room so she could have some privacy while she changed her clothes.

Poppy saw him emerge from the room and feared the worst. "Is everything alright Severus?"

"She's awake. She's getting dressed, and then I'm taking her down to our rooms." He was so tired, but filled with an immense amount of joy, and yet he had a calmness to his movements and voice, that it had scared Poppy.

"Just allow me to examine her first, and then you'll be free to take her out of here."

"Alright."

The examination was very short, just enough to make sure that there were no adverse effects to her body or powers from the sudden drain. When nothing could be found out of the normal, she told Aurora to just take it easy for a couple of weeks, and sent her on her way.

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Once down in the dungeons, Severus headed straight for the four poster bed.

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That night Tom appeared to her in a dream, the same dream that she had had in the Hospital Wing over the two weeks she was there unconscious.

_It started off just like it always had, her and Tom were out on a picnic in a meadow, laughing, talking, and having a good time. The sun was shinning, there wasn't a cloud in the sky, and the birds were singing._

_As the meal progressed and the conversation began to get more on the side of serious, clouds began to form in the sky and the song the birds sang wasn't as pretty. Tom was constantly trying to turn the conversation towards her coming back to the castle with him, but because she didn't want to hurt him and she wanted things to remain happy between them, she avoided the subject._

_Finally, Tom couldn't take it and he began to demand. "You are coming back to the castle with me whether you want to or not. That's where you belong, and where you are most wanted. So stop all of this nonsense and just come back with me."_

_"I can't Tom. You know that I'm not meant to be with you. You may have taken care of me for so long and I may have fallen in love with you, but you are heel bent on the evil path, and all I want is for there to be goodness throughout the world. I am pure light, and you are pure darkness. We were never meant to be together, something had to have told you that deep down. I love you, but not enough to abandon my beliefs."_

_Tom very quickly turned from his normal self that Aurora had grown accustomed to seeing during her six years with him, to that evil creature called Voldemort that had tried to take her away from Severus before she had regained her strength. And everything around her went dead, dark, and evil. The sky became an ugly black color from all of the clouds that filled the sky. The pleasant green meadow studded with beautiful flowers of every variety, became a barren waste land. And the birds had left taking there beautiful songs with them._

_"I will have you back, or the school that you love so much and the people you claim to care about will burn because of you!"_


	9. Calm Before the Storm

**A/N: I'm nearing the end of this fanfic. I hope everyone had enjoyed my first Harry Potter fanfic. Reviews will help me decide whether to end it happily or evilily. Enjoy.**

They woke late in the afternoon the next day, entwined in eachother's arms, and all dreams forgotten. The enchanted windows allowed the bright sun rays into the dark dungeon room, and bathed the pair in warm rays of fresh Spring sunlight.

Sitting at the foot of the bed, getting a sweet picture of the two, was Fawkes, Dumbledore's Phoenix, with a message from the Headmaster in his beak.

Aurora was the first awake, slowly followed by Severus, so she was the one who took the message from Fawkes. When she had it in her hand, he gave her a nod of his head and a single sweet note as he left the room, which was what woke Severus.

The message read:

Dear Ms. MacNamair,

I am formally requesting your presence in my office as soon as you fell able to make the journey.

We have a few things that need to be discussed.

I hope you have continued good health, and that you make the journey sooner rather than later.

Dumbledore

Severus had been reading over her shoulder, so once he finished, he pulled Aurora back down to the bed with him so he could catch up on his sleep. Luckily, it was Saturday, so he didn't have to worry about classes or unintelligent brats until Monday.

"Severus, I have to go. Dumbledore has requested my presence." Aurora was fighting the urge to stay in bed with Severus so she could do what had to be done.

"He requested it for when you feel able." He wasn't ready to let her go yet, and he was hoping that she would change her mind.

"But I do feel able."

"You only think you do. his office is up a flight of stairs, on the other side of the castle, and then up another flight of winding stairs. You'll pass out before you get there."

"Maybe so, but the sooner I get this meeting over with, the sooner I can be as lazy here with you as I want." With that, she gave him a kiss on his lips, and nearly ran out of the bed while he was distracted.

"He'll end up saying something that will make you want to stay out of this bed and therefore away from me. He always does!"

Aurora quickly changed her clothes and left.

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Dumbledore was a clever man. He knew that Aurora's sense of duty would make her come before she was truly ready, so he had his office moved.

As Aurora emerged from the dungeon room, instead of seeing the corridor to the rest of the school, she was standing in front of Dumbledore's office.

At first she was confused, but realized that Dumbledore figured that she would come immediately, and therefore made the journey something that she would be able to handle.

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"Oh Aurora! I hope that the journey wasn't too much too handle."

"It was an absolute nightmare." The sarcasm was dripping off of their comments. "Why was it so urgent that I come? I could sense some fear in your words, which was what brought me sooner rather than later."

"Like I said, there are a few things that we need to discuss, or rather a few things that I need to tell you. Please just try to absorb what I have to tell you?"

Aurora could sense the same kind of fear in his voice that she had sensed in the letter, so she merely sat down on the big, comfy couch while Dumbledore spoke to her.

"My dear," the smile was present, but not reaching his eyes, "there is something I must tell you before things proceed any further."

Aurora was becoming confused, however, it was nothing compared to the way she would feel when he was done. "What is it?"

"There is something that I should have told you, or your parents should have told you." She gave him a blank stare. "There is a prophecy surrounding your existence." She sat there, dumbfounded.

"You do realize that you are the last Pure Light Entity, don't you?"

"Yes, well, my mom always told me that I was the last ever born, but they are both Pure Light Entities. So we are the last…" Dumbledore had cut her off with merely a look and a motion of his hand.

"While Voldemort had you and you didn't know who you were, your parents died in a car wreck. They died instantly, so they didn't suffer. We only found out because your parent's solicitor sent you a letter, which I read with Severus, concerning what to do in the event of their deaths. We made all of the necessary preparations for the funeral and I was able to assume your form for the funeral from a strand of your hair that Severus still had and a handy Polyogise Potion. I am sorry you had to find out this way."

Aurora was stunned, but not into silence. "That makes me the last Pure Light Entity. And now every choice that I make will in some way pertain to some prophecy about me. Do you of the prophecy? My parents never went into detail about it," forgetting about the first part of their conversation.

"Yes. That was actually one of the things that I had called you up here to tell you about."

"One of the things?"

"I'll tell you afterwards. The prophecy goes like this: When there is only one Pure Light Entity left on the earth, there will be a war between the good and evil. There will also be one Dark Magic Element on the earth, and he will have many secretive followers to aid him. Should the Pure Light Entity join the side of evil, their powers combined would shadow the world in total darkness forever. However, if the Pure Light Entity should stand against him, she would win the war for the good. And, in the last display of power between them, the Pure Light Entity would destroy all of the evil ones."

Aurora stood after hearing that. She just couldn't handle the idea that whatever she chose, people were going to die, people she loved and cared about. She made like she going to leave, forgetting about the other thing Dumbledore had to tell her.

"Aurora, wait. Don't you want to hear the other thing that I had to tell you?"

She turned around slowly, and he could tell from the look on her face that she could just barely comprehend what he had just told her.

"What could you say to possibly top this?"

"Voldemort demanded that you be given back to him once you were well enough, or he would burn the school if he didn't get you back."

This had brought her some of the way back to her normally calm self. 'I thought that was just a dream.'

"When did he demand this?"

"After you passed out from fighting him from taking you out of the Hospital Wing and Severus wouldn't allow him to see you anymore. They both love you very much, you know?"

"Yes, I do. But, I can't go back to him. If I do, so many people will be hurt, and I could never live with all of the lives that I would be helping to destroy. But, I don't know if I could help this side either. I love tom as much as I love Severus, I could never be the one to kill him."

"Follow your heart. It has never, and will never lead you astray. Now go get some rest."

As she made her way back out of his office and down the spiral staircase to the Griffin statue, she found Severus standing in front of the statue, but he wasn't standing outside of his rooms. They were back across the castle, up a flight of stairs, and he was a little winded.

While she had been talking to Dumbledore, his office had moved back to it's original place in the castle so others would know where to find it.

"How did you beat me here in your condition? I left about a minute after you, and I half expected to find you sitting on the stairs coming up here."

"I took a shortcut."


	10. The Storm Begins

**Disclaimer: Just in case I haven't said it in a while and have over stepped some boundaries in this story, I don't own Harry Potter. Anything in this story that you either don't recognize in the books or the movies, which ever you keep up with, I made up in my own little world of magic and fantasy.**

**And if J.K. Rowling wants to use any of my ideas, than she is more than welcome to them. It's only fair since I took so many of her characters and settings to use in my own story. Enjoy all.**

That evening, while everyone began to get ready for the battle at hand, Aurora spent her time relaxing and allowing her body to finish healing while submerged in hot water. She stayed in the water for hours just letting the water take away all of her stress in body and mind.

The Headmaster, along with many of the professors who weren't doing anything in particular to aid in the preparations for the battle, gathered all of the fourth years and younger to be sent home or to any other safe place away from the school. All fifth years and above were given the choice to either stay and fight, stay and help prepare then leave to go home, or leave with the children who couldn't go home and take care of them until it was safe to come back to the school.

Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Draco were all ones that chose to stay. They may not have all become the kind of friends that the Golden Trio had always been, but when you've shown that you have actually changed sides, and you start dating Hermione Granger, you tend to become one of the gang and go where they go. The Trio had been apart of the action, so to say, their entire school careers, so there was no way that they were going to miss out on the "fun" just because this was going to be a lover's quarrel. And Draco wasn't about to let Hermione go off to battle for a woman that his god-father had loved for so long without him by her side. It would have been against his family honor, and a betrayal to Severus if he had done so.

Severus, Poppy, and a few of his more competent students, Hermione and Draco included, brewed potions of every variety. Pepper Up and Power Up, (A rare potion used by the Order while in battle to increase one's magical abilities, but only in bursts, and only for a short time.) and there were also some protection potions brewed that when drunk would either produce magic repelling body armor, shields, or give the drinker the ability to produce stronger barriers. And for the more advanced fighters, explosive potions were concocted and distributed.

Other professors went about the grounds and castle fortifying the charms and guards as a way to gain more time before the actual face to face fighting had to occur.

During all of this activity, Aurora relaxed in the bath mulling over the last thing Albus said to her. "Follow your heart. It has never and will never lead you astray."

'That's easier said than done, especially when your heart doesn't even know what it wants.'

Aurora began, at that moment, to feel as if she weren't alone in the room. At first, she thought that it was merely Severus or Poppy coming to check on her, but remembered that they were both going to be bonetireingly busy all day and wouldn't be able to get away for even a moment.

She took away the barrier so the water could escape while she died off. Having never gotten the hang of a simple heating charm for an entire room, she took to bathing behind a closed curtain so the heat would remain concentrated around her. She reached out and grabbed her towel and the feeling grew stronger. She quickly dried off, still inside the curtain, and wrapped the towel around her form tightly before she opened the curtain fully.

"Oh Merlin!" came her raspy voice from sheer shock.

There standing before her was the smug, looming, haunting form of Lucius Malfoy. As if he had forgotten his manners, he stepped back to allow her room to get out of the tub fully.

When she didn't move, he decided to try to coax her out. He reached out his right hand as he spoke, "Come my lady. My master wishes a word with you immediately."

"Never! I'll not go anywhere with you, and he knows that! He would never send you to get me. He barred you're access to me years ago."

"I am the only one of my master's followers whom he knows will not harm you in any way. I fear not only his wrath if I should even ruffle a single hair on your head, but yours as well after seeing your display of power before. Now, please come with me?"

"Like I said before, never. I refuse to go anywhere with you, and I'll not see him either."

"Then you have signed your friends death certificates, along with every child who stands on that battlefield with them to protect you."

With that Lucius transformed into tom just long enough to allow Aurora to see who she was really talking to, and then he was gone.

'Oh no! What have I done?' Aurora jumped out of the tub, ran to her wardrobe, donned some clothes and a cloak, and threw her hair up on the way out of the castle, praying that they weren't out there waiting for her.

The scene that greeted her was more than she could have hoped for. The birds were singing, a few of the children were out playing and talking while either waiting for parents to come get them, or for their groups to be called for departure. There was nothing to worry about, and a part of her found where she wanted to be, while the other part felt empty at what tom had said to her.

Suddenly feeling like she had been hidden away for far too long, she spent the rest of the evening and most of the night outside in the fresh air. She really couldn't remember the last time she had simply had fun outside.

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It was nearing early morning when she went in. All of the students who were being shipped off had long since been gone, and those that were staying had an air of apprehension about them which made them no fun to even talk to. She spent the hours after they had all been called in for curfew in solitude on the Quidditch Pitch just taking in everything, and trying not to think of what Albus had told her.

It was getting about time for the sun to start peaking out above the horizon when Aurora finally decided that she should go in to try and get some sleep. As she approached the doorway to their bedroom, something stopped her.

The sight of Severus just laying there in the bed. He looked so peaceful, so carefree, and just as young as the day they had met. That sight of him made her want both to run over to him, lay in his arms, and take comfort in just being near him, and to run away to the arms of the other man she loved. She could remember how Tom looked in the middle of the night as he slept, and it made her heart hurt for having to be far away from him and having said those awful things to him when he came to take her away.

Then, out of nowhere, Aurora felt a hand on her shoulder. She turned expecting to see Tom, or one of his minions, but instead there stood Dumbledore.

"Headmaster! You startled me. Is there something that you wished to discuss with me?"

"You may call me Albus my dear. We are colleagues, or at least we were for a time, so you don't have to address me with such formality all of the time."

"Alright, Albus. Is there something that you wished to discuss with me?"

"No. I was merely going to inquire as to why you aren't in bed now. The battle will start tomorrow morning and you are going to need your strength if you're going to fight."

"I'm not going t fight," a twinge of remorse in her voice.

"Understandable. Severus can be a bit demanding sometimes, but he does this for your safety. But the least you could do would be to go to him and let him know that you don't resent him for his decision," having misread the remorse he hears in her voice.

"Severus has made no such demand. He hasn't even spoken to me about whether or not I'll be fighting. I've chosen not to fight."

"Still, you could be there with him." Dumbledore had an idea of where this was going, but he wasn't going to lead her in that direction if she didn't want to go.

"Albus, I'm frightened."

He opened his arms for her to take comfort in. "Of what?"

"I'm frightened of how the battle will turn out."

"That Severus will lose?"

"And that he'll win. I know I can't have them both, but I can't live and be whole with one of them dead. I love them both so much that I would die for either of them, even knowing who he really is."

"I believe you. Just remember what I told you before. Follow your heart."

"How can I possibly follow my heart when it doesn't even know what it wants? Part of my heart would love nothing more than to stay here with Severus and fight against the evil of this world, but the other part wants to be back in Tom's arms feeling his protection and knowing that nothing could happen to me, even though I can't remember anything about my past."

"I understand."

"How could you possibly understand!" Aurora ran off to hide so she could begin to think, and to be out of the way when the fighting would begin in a few hours.

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Severus had been dragged out of his sleep at her profession of fear and heard the rest of the conversation, only to see her run off.

Dumbledore looked right at him and simply stated, "Everything will work itself out in the end. Get some rest my boy."


	11. The Storm

Over the next couple of hours, the sun rose, the castle began to stir with activity, and true to what Dumbledore has said, Voldemort came with is troop of Death Eaters.

Severus woke to an otherwise empty bed, a little disappointed, and realized that the only way he'd see her today, or ever again for that matter, was if he won today against Voldemort. But after hearing her profession of love for him and his adversary, Severus wasn't sure she would ever be happy with either man.

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Aurora swore she wouldn't fight on either side and she was sticking to that. she knew that either side she fought on was sure to win, and she just couldn't stand the idea of tipping the scales.

So, before Severus had a chance to wake, Aurora had climbed the multitude of stairs to the top of the Astronomy Tower. She had made up her mind late that night that there was no way she could fight to help either side, but she could keep them apart for as long as her powers would allow without killing herself.

When she saw Voldemort's troops emerge onto what would be the battlefield just after sunrise that morning, without even thinking, she went to the middle of the room and charmed a massive barrier around the castle. It prevented either side from attacking, and gave everyone in the castle more time to prepare for the battle. She may not be fighting, but she wasn't going to send a bunch of children to their deaths without the most protection that could possibly provide from charms, potions, and time for calming of nerves.

Voldemort saw the barrier and recognized it as one that Aurora had when she was mad at him. He took it as a sign that she wasn't going to leave here without a fight. And who was he to deny her what she wanted?

Dumbledore, after seeing it and the army, went down to fetch Severus. The moment Severus saw the barrier, his thoughts were exactly the opposite, and yet the same as Voldemort's. he thought the barrier was to keep him away from the man she hoped would win. And just like Voldemort, he wasn't about to give her up without a fight.

But neither had the right idea, exactly. As we all know, she couldn't make up her mind, so Dumbledore was the only man to realize what was going on. Aurora was trying to protect the two men she loved more than her own life, and therefore she was keeping them away from eachother as long as possible.

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Now, you're probably wondering why it wasn't just Voldemort against Severus since it was just about their battle for Aurora.

While all those fighting on either side knew what was going on, and all would have agreed that they didn't really need to be there, neither side was willing to pass up an opportunity to deliver a fatal blow to the other side.

Most of the Death Eaters thought that even if the other side won, they could get into the castle and steal her away for their master, or themselves, and they couldn't leave their master all alone on a battlefield at that damn school were Harry Potter resided and was sure to make an appearance at the battle. And all those at the school who decided to join the fight, were there to make sure that no Death Eater got inside of the school to get Aurora, not even after the battle was over, and they all knew that Voldemort wouldn't come alone, so Severus would need some back up if they started to fight dirty.

And who's to say that the final battle wouldn't start because of a lover's quarrel?

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Aurora knew she couldn't keep the barrier up indefinitely. For one thing, if she did, she could die, having barely been out of the Hospital Wing a day. And secondly, even if she did attempt to do so, someone would start blasting it to bring it down once they began to get impatient. She just had to make sure that Severus was ready on this side before she opened the flood gates.

After an hour, Aurora had to release the barrier and allow things to happen as they were meant to. Luckily, it had helped everyone in the castle better prepare themselves for the fight, and they were even able to get lined up outside.

Voldemort and Severus were in the middle of their troops while others were faced with either someone they knew, knew they could beat, or hoped they had a chance against. Harry and Ron were together facing Ron's former pet and Harry's parent's former friend and betrayer, Peter Petigrew. Not that it would have taken both of them to defeat him, it's just they each had a score to settle with the rodent. Hermione and Draco paired up against Lucius. They were the smartest pair in the entire school, and it would take everything they had and more to defeat this snake.

After Aurora released the barrier, she went over to the Observation Platform to watch the carnage and things really let loose. Bolts of curses, charms, and spells flashed across the field. Barriers erected and disappeared almost nonstop on either side, and explosive potions ignited on both sides of the field. Peter fell within the first few seconds of battle. Both boys hexed his ass into oblivion before he could lift his wand.

Many other bodies fell on both sides. After they had taken care of Peter, Harry and Ron made their way over to Hermione and Draco to help them out. On their way, the hexed random Death Eaters as they passed by them.

By the time they reached their friends' sides, Lucius had just knocked Draco to the side and had his attention focused on Hermione. Ron, at seeing the look in Lucius' lust filled eyes, gathered up all of his courage and rage and directed it at Lucius in one shot, as Harry went to tend to Draco. One overly powerful Expeleriamous and Lucius landed head first on the ground and cracked his head open and broke a vertebra or two, leaving him incapable of ever moving again, assuming he had survived the impact to begin with.

Towards the end of the battle, both sides had lost plenty of people, enough even to quit fighting so they could retreat and regroup, but because Voldemort and Severus were still going at it, neither side left the battlefield. A small clearing formed around the fighters and enough fireworks flew between those two to light the sky on the Fourth of July in America.

A random curse flew form both wands and knocked the other to the ground. As people began to notice the fighting began to stop.

Aurora saw them fall and apparated down to the battlefield to assess the damage done. She didn't care what might happen to her, all she card about was whether or not they were dead.

It took her a moment to muster the energy to apparate down there, which gave them enough time to attempt to rise. Knowing that the first to rise enough to aim a curse would win, they both struggled to just sit up.

As Aurora apparated in between them, they called out, "Avada Kedavra," without looking where it was going or who it might be aimed at.

The blood red stream of light came from both wands at the same time and hurled towards their respective targets. But, instead of hitting the intended targets, the streams instead hit Aurora squarely in the chest and back.

The most horror filled, blood curdling scream pierced the airwaves and all who were standing fell to the ground and covered their ears to block as much of the noise and pain as possible so their ears wouldn't burst and bleed.

All anyone could see was a smoking corpse slumped in a ball on the ground between her quarreling lovers.

**A/N: Is this the end, or will there be more? I haven't decided if I like it better ending this way, or if I should add another chapter. It all depends on the type of mood I come out of the weekend with. I hope you enjoyed the story, just in case this is the last chapter.**


	12. Picking Up the Pieces

**Disclaimer: This is the final chapter to my first Harry Potter fanfic. I hope you have all enjoyed it. Please read and review, and enjoy the rest of the story. Animagious - White - Tiger.**

Time slowed to a complete halt. Heartbeats lasted an eternity, and the air clung to the lungs making it impossible to breathe. Moving was out of the question can yet it was the only thing either wanted to do. They had to reach her, had to make sure that she didn't die alone in some ball on a battlefield. And while she was a mere yard from either, the distance spread for miles.

Their movements were slow, calculated, and remorseful. They crawled the distance to her body, hoping against all hope that it hadn't been her, that she was still safely tucked away somewhere and they had hit some other bystander.

When they reached her body, both men confirmed their worst fears as they looked down into the face of the woman they had pledged their undying love and devotion to protect for.

They looked deeply at the other and cringed in disgust.

"How could you do this to her?" both said at the same time.

"How could I? How could you?" spoke Severus first with such indignation at what Voldemort had rightly accused him of.

"I was aiming at you, just like you were aiming at me. But you're supposed to be a good guy. You're not allowed to use the killing curse."

"I would use anything if it meant keeping you away from her. I just never imagined that she would love you enough to save you from me like this. I never wanted anything to happen to her." As he finished, a single tear slipped passed his defenses and landed on her cheek closest to him, making it look as if she were crying herself.

"I know what you mean. I loved her just as much. If I had for one moment thought that she would have sacrificed herself for you, I would have rather left here without possibility of ever seeing her beautiful smile again." The same as Severus, when he finished, a single tear fell upon her delicate cheek nearest him, making it look as if she were weeping.

Neither looked down as they both picked her up.

Severus brought her up into his arms, in his lap, and sat firmly on the ground rocking her back and forth as he wept.

Moments later, Aurora began to stir and breath, and finally she spoke. "Severus lighten the death grip. It's getting hard to breathe."

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Voldemort was having a similar experience.

As he sat there smoothing out her features and hair, her eyes blinked open, and her breath hitched in her throat.

Voldemort looked down at the woman in his arms, and as she looked deeply into his eyes she smiled her beautiful smile. His heart began to melt, knowing that she was coming back to life just for him, knowing that she truly loved him.

"Tom," at that he became the Tom she had fallen in love with all those years ago, and smiled in reply to her, "take me home please? I miss our castle."

Tom lifted her up with him from the ground just as Severus exclaimed, "Aurora!"

Both looked over at him, and the Aurora in Toms arms couldn't understand how this man knew her name, but she knew nothing could happen to her if tom was by her side.

Tom looked over at his ex Death Eater and noticed that he wasn't looking at the young girl in his arms, but at the one in his arms. Tom very quickly realized what had happened, and apperated him and who would very soon be his bride, along with his remaining Death Eaters away before Severus noticed anything.

Voldemort was never heard from again from that day on. Tom Marvolo Riddle married Aurora MacNaimer and they lived very prosperous lives. He may not have joined the Ministry, but he still led a lavish life, and gave up on his quest to rule the world. He spent his time instead with his wife and many children.

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Back to Severus and Aurora on the battlefield.

"Aurora! You're alive!" he said both surprised and questionlly at the same time. "How?"

"I wouldn't suggest questioning a gift from the Lord, when he sees fit to grant one. He didn't see fit to keep me there when you would be left all alone again. And seeing as how you've repented for long enough, you are being given the chance to live and love again. Unless you don't want it."

Severus grabbed her tighter and pulled her closer to him, "Oh yes! I want it and you. I'm never letting you go again. In fact, I want you to marry me."

"Are you asking?"

"Are you accepting?"

Aurora grabbed his face and pulled him into a fiercely passionate kiss as her answer.

When neither could breathe any longer, they pulled apart, but rested their foreheads on eachother's.

"Did that answer your question?"

"No. Not at all," Severus said as sarcastically as possible. He pulled her back to his lips and returned her kiss with an equally passionate from him.

When they finally broke apart, Severus scooped her up with him and whisked her off to their dungeon rooms in the castle for some much needed private time.

Two months after the battle, one full month after Tom and Aurora's wedding, Severus and Aurora were wed. They would have waited for the end of the school year, but after having to wait for seven years, neither were willing to wait any longer.

Of course children happened for the Snapes as well, but they didn't have as many. They all lived at the school during the year in Severus' dungeon rooms, generously enlarged to accommodate his growing family, but spent all of the holidays at Snape Manor. All of the children had a full background in Potions, since their father was a Potion's Master, and that was easily their best subject, but each child had their own special subject that they excelled at.

Albus finally managed House unity after the last of the Snape children entered the school. Because all of the children had their own abilities, all four of their children ended up in different house. And since they were family, they helped eachother out and got their friends to associate with others from the other houses, no matter what the blood lineage was.

It's hard to care about that stuff when your mom is a pure blood elemental, your dad is a half breed who followed a half breed for all of the wrong reasons, which he admits to, and all of the rest of your world is shaking off the antiquated notion of purity means better.

Draco and Hermione got married, and their children, as well as Harry and Ginny's all attended school with Severus and Aurora's children. All were fast friends, and there were even a couple of marriages in the group. Needless to say, Severus wasn't too thrilled about being related to the Boy Who Lived through his daughter, but it wasn't any worse than being related to Hermione, the Brain With a Mouth, through his Godson. He softened in his later years, with Aurora by his side, but he still managed to scare his new students into submission with an evil glare.


End file.
